Offices Held

Biography

Jermyn’s family acquired the manor of Rushbrooke, three miles south-east of Bury St. Edmunds, in the 13th century, and first sat for the county in 1584. Though the estates in Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire were estimated at £1,500 p.a., the family were much at Court in the 17th century. His grandfather and father together represented Bury in the Long Parliament. The former, comptroller of the Household from 1639 to 1641, was disabled in 1644, while in 1651 the latter paid a fine of £2,750 for his delinquency. Jermyn’s uncle, raised to the peerage in 1643, remained in exile with the queen mother, presided over her household, and according to some sources privately married her. Jermyn himself may have been among the exiles in Paris around 1650, but he probably returned to England shortly afterwards, and attended his father’s deathbed in 1659.2

After the Restoration Jermyn fared less well than his uncle, who was created Earl of St. Albans, and his younger brother Henry, master of the horse to the Duke of York. He was given a commission in the garrison of Jersey, whence he despatched a privateer in the second Dutch war. he took virtually no part in Suffolk affairs until the Exclusion Parliaments, in which he represented Bury. Classed as ‘base’ by shatesbury, he duly voted against the first exclusion bill. He presumably continued to oppose exclusion, but he made no recorded speeches and was not appointed to any committees.3

In 1684 Jermyn succeeded his uncle as governor of Jersey, and also in his peerage under a special remainder, although the estates were divided with his brother, a Roman Catholic who was created Lord created Lord Dover by James II. He supported the Revolution, signing the Association in 1696. He died at his house in Westminster on 1 Apr. 1703, the last of his family to sit. The estates, valued at £15,000 p.a. were divided between his four surviving daughters, and Rushbrooke was eventually bought by his son-in-law, Sir Robert Davers, 1st Bt.4